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Main > Fairy tale > All authors > Frank Baum > Fairy tale "Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West "

Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West

Merrick's

party assembled at the breakfast table.

"I must telephone the Santa Monica hospital and find out how our patient

is," remarked Uncle John, when the meal was over; but presently he

returned from the telephone booth with a puzzled expression upon his

face. "A. Jones has disappeared!" he announced.

"Disappeared! What do you mean, Uncle?" asked Beth.

"He woke early and declared he was himself again, paid his bill, said

'good morning' to the hospital superintendent and walked away. He

wouldn't answer questions, but kept asking them. The nurse showed him the

book with the record of how he was saved, but she couldn't induce him to

say who he was, where he came from nor where he was going. Seems a little

queer, doesn't it?"

They all confessed that it did.

"However," said Patsy Doyle, "I'm glad he recovered, and I'm sure Maud

will be when she hears the news. The boy has a perfect right to keep his

own counsel, but he might have had the grace to tell us what that initial

'A.' stands for, and where on earth Sangoa is."

"I've been inquiring about Sangoa," announced Arthur, just then joining

the group, "and no one seems wiser than we are. There's no record of such

a town or state in Mexico, or in the United States--so far as I can

discover. The clerk has sent for a map of Alaska, and perhaps we'll find

Sangoa there."

"What does it matter?" inquired Louise.

"Why, we don't like to be stumped," asserted Patsy, "that's all. Here is

a young man from Sangoa, and--"

"Really," interrupted Beth, who was gazing through the window, "I believe

here _is_ the young man from Sangoa!"

"Where?" they all cried, crowding forward to look.

"Coming up the walk. See! Isn't that the same mysterious individual whose

life Maud saved?"

"That's the identical mystery," declared Uncle John. "I suppose he has

come here to look us up and thank us."

"Then, for heaven's sake, girls, pump him and find out where Sangoa is,"

said Arthur hastily, and the next moment a bell boy approached their

party with a card.

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